N.J. Mayor Prepares to Marry Same-Sex Couple After Ruling

By Terrence Dopp and Elise Young -
Sep 30, 2013

The mayor of Lambertville, New
Jersey, who performed one of the state’s first civil unions in
2007, said he plans to marry one of those same couples on Oct.
21 after a judge ruled that same-sex marriages must be allowed.

Mayor David DelVecchio, a Democrat, said he intends to
perform the state’s first legal gay marriage ceremony for Beth
Asaro and Joanne Schailey at midnight three weeks from today, as
long as a judge doesn’t grant a stay of the Sept. 27 ruling. A
handful of couples has already expressed interest in weddings,
he said. Lambertville, across the Delaware River from New Hope,
Pennsylvania, has a large gay population.

“This is just a continuation of the first civil union,”
DelVecchio, 56, said today in an interview. “If a stay is not
granted on the 21st, we’re going to move forward with this.”

Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson ruled last week in
Trenton that she “will order the state to permit any and all
same-sex marriages.” Unless the ruling is blocked, it would
take effect Oct. 21, making New Jersey the 14th state to allow
gay marriages along with the District of Columbia.

Governor Chris Christie, a Republican who vetoed a same-sex
marriage bill last year, plans to appeal Jacobson’s ruling,
according to his office.

“Since the legislature refused to allow the people to
decide expeditiously, we will let the Supreme Court make this
constitutional determination,” Christie’s spokesman, Michael Drewniak, said in a statement on Sept. 27.

’Drop It’

Christie is “defending the indefensible” in promising to
go to the high court, state Senator Ray Lesniak, a Democrat from
Elizabeth, said at a Statehouse press conference with party
members.

“The governor is a trained attorney -- he knows there is
no way he could win this appeal,” said the Senate majority
leader, Loretta Weinberg from Teaneck. “There is no logic
behind it. So he should stop wasting taxpayer money and drop
it.”

The Democrats will ask the state Supreme Court to take up
the issue immediately, said Senate President Steve Sweeney, a
Democrat from West Deptford. He also said he will continue to
seek support for an override of Christie’s veto.

Civil Right

The Superior Court ruling helped push the number of
legislative yes votes “closer than we were before,” said
Lesniak, though he and Sweeney declined to say how many
lawmakers are committed to an override.

An override would require 27 votes in the Senate, where
Democrats rule 24-16, and 54 in the Assembly, where they
dominate 48-32.

Christie, who is seeking re-election in November and may
run for president in 2016, has said he believes marriage should
be between a man and a woman. He has said the question of gay
marriage should be decided by voters in a referendum, and he
would honor the results.

Democrats resisted Christie’s call, saying gay marriage is
a civil right that doesn’t belong on the ballot. Christie’s
administration defended civil unions in the case before
Jacobson.

Gay Unions

In 2006, the state Supreme Court ruled that gay couples are
entitled to the same rights under the state constitution as
married couples of opposite sexes. That led then-Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat, to sign a law creating civil unions. That
law was challenged in court by Lambda Legal, a national advocacy
group that says unions don’t provide marriage’s benefits and
protections.

New Jersey, Hawaii and Illinois, which all allow civil
unions, are the battlegrounds for gay-rights advocates
emboldened by a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that
struck down a law that denied federal benefits to same-sex
married couples.

Jacobson, in her decision, said her Oct. 21 effective date
would “allow the state adequate time to effectuate this ruling
or to pursue appellate remedies.” The state has 45 days from
the date of the ruling to appeal, according to Tamara Kendig,
spokeswoman for the New Jersey judiciary.

“It’s a little difficult to plan, given those ifs, ands or
buts,” said Asaro, 53, who plans to wed Schailey, 56, a
registered nurse, in their hometown of Lambertville.

“We’re not sure whether civil unions will be automatically
converted to marriage,” Asaro, a product manager for AT&T Inc.
and a city council member, said in a phone interview. “If it’s
a conversion, so to speak, we’ll use it as an opportunity to
spread the wealth, to let everyone know that Lambertville is
open for business for gay marriage.”